Dr. Iconoclast

email on vitamin D

SPhillips@opschools.org wrote:

Dear Dr. Merrill,

I want to thank you for your article on aging. My 91 year old mother has been hospitalized since February 14, 2007. She was transferred back and forth to both XXX and XXX Hospital, then to XXX.  She was on morphine , then Darovet, which are drugs she can't tolerate. They admitted  her as "comfort care" only, figuring she would die within weeks. The opioid analgesic medicines made her hallucinate and tremble. She was always crying. I had to write a letter to her doctor at the nursing home to take her off these drugs and give her plain Tylenol if she was experiencing pain.

During this time, I read your article which included information on Vitamin D deficiency. We had been told my mom would never walk again. I showed them the article and asked them to try giving her this vitamin. They acted a bit insulted that I was trying to tell them how to do their job but they complied. Within a short period of time, my mom was back to her normal mental condition and doing well at physical therapy. She is now independent in her room and will be coming home next week. I can't thank you enough for your insight. It is too bad that more people in nursing homes don't have family members to advocate for them. 

Sincerely, 
Sue Phillips

fun is morally necessary

I'm reading this book with my friend Bob.

Recently it is socially and morally important to have fun. There is tremendous peer pressure to spend distinct energy and money on this. I personally don't feel like I'm anybody because I haven't been on a cruise.

Why should something so personal become a mandated activity on a society-wide basis?

Short answer: the needs of the service economy.

Longer answer: Morality, like it or not, is about what is good for humanity as a whole. Somehow the zeitgeist, or the collective unconscious, has figured out that in order to keep everybody in a job, people have to spend money on things that previously were considered frivolous. So we have mandated fun from the service industry.